‘Female lawmakers contribute to nearly half of NA agenda’

2026-03-11 - 22:24

Female Members of the National Assembly (MNAs) contributed around 48 percent of the regular plenary agenda of the National Assembly during the second parliamentary year (2025–2026) of the 16th National Assembly, according to the latest Women Parliamentarians Performance Report released by the Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN). This level of contribution is significantly higher than women’s share in the Assembly’s membership, which remains below 22 percent. Most women MNAs currently enter the House through reserved seats rather than direct election. Titled “Women Did It Again!”, the report evaluates female MNAs’ parliamentary performance across five dimensions including their contribution to the parliamentary agenda; participation in plenary debates; attendance in House sittings; parliamentary treatment of agenda submitted by women MNAs; and individual profiles of women parliamentarians. The report focuses solely on plenary performance and does not cover committee work or constituency activities. Moreover, verbal interventions during Question Hour, such as supplementary questions, are also excluded. Following are key findings of the report: Agenda contribution exceeds membership share: On a per-capita basis, female MNAs submitted agenda items at a substantially higher rate than male MNAs. On average, each female MNA submitted 16 agenda items during the year, compared with five items per male MNA. However, women’s overall share of the agenda declined from 55 percent recorded in the previous parliamentary year (2024–2025).Parliamentary treatment of women MNAs’ agenda: The report introduces the Gender Responsiveness Score (GRS) to measure how frequently the House addresses agenda submitted by female MNAs compared with that submitted by male MNAs.